Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Minister Llyod Austin are due to arrive in kyiv on Sunday to discuss US arms shipments to Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Saturday.
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11:03 p.m .: Meeting between Zelensky, Blinken and the US Minister of Defense in kyiv
A meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken and US Defense Minister Lloyd Austin was held Sunday evening in kyiv, according to the Ukrainian presidency.
“The Americans are in kyiv today. They are talking with the president right now,” said an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Oleksiï Arestovitch, in an interview broadcast in the evening on Youtube.
This is the first meeting between Mr. Zelensky and representatives of the American administration in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24.
Discussions on Sunday were to focus in particular on US arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Mr. Arestovitch repeated on Youtube kyiv’s desire to see itself delivered “offensive weapons”: “As long as we cannot counter-attack, there will be a + new Boutcha + every day”, he said. he launched, alluding to this town in the northwestern suburbs of kyiv that had become a symbol of the atrocities committed during the Russian occupation of the region in March.
“The American representatives would not come here if they were not ready to give (weapons)”, he estimated.
8:55 p.m .: Ukraine offers Russia talks next to Azovstal site in Mariupol
Ukraine has offered talks to Russia next to the vast Azovstal metallurgical complex in Mariupol (southeast), where Ukrainian fighters and civilians are still entrenched in a devastated city largely under Russian control, announced Sunday the Ukrainian presidency. “We have invited the Russians to hold a special session of talks right next to the Azovstal site,” an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Oleksiy Arestovitch, said during a briefing, indicating “waiting for the response” from the delegation. Russian.
Earlier in the day, another adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, recalled on Twitter that kyiv demanded “a truce” in Mariupol for the Orthodox Easter celebrated on Sunday, “an immediate humanitarian corridor for civilians” stranded in this city port and “an agreement for special negotiations to exchange military prisoners”.
The huge Azovstal factory is symbolic because it represents the bitterness of the fighting between the Ukrainian and Russian armies in Mariupol, looted since the beginning of March by the forces of Moscow and today almost completely destroyed.
Ukrainian fighters are still entrenched there, with little food and ammunition, and “about a thousand civilians, women and children” and “hundreds of wounded”, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
His Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin demanded the surrender of these last fighters, asking his army to besiege “the area in such a way that not a single fly will pass”.
Russia says it aims for “total control” of southern Ukraine and the eastern region of Donbass, to have a land bridge to Crimea (south) annexed by Moscow in 2014.
7:57 p.m .: No Swiss ammunition for Ukraine via Germany
Switzerland has vetoed the delivery of Swiss ammunition to Ukraine via Germany, the Swiss economy ministry confirmed on Sunday. Germany intended to send Swiss ammunition to the Ukraine at war and Berlin asked Bern if this delivery was possible, according to the Swiss Sunday weekly ‘Sonntagszeitung’.
The Federal Ministry of Economics confirmed to the Keystone-ATS news agency on Sunday that it had refused Germany’s request, citing Swiss neutrality and the “imperative criteria of the legislation on war material”. According to Swiss law, such a delivery is legally impossible, exports to countries involved in intensive and long-lasting internal or international conflicts being prohibited.
The ministry also underlines that Switzerland requires in principle a declaration of non-re-export of war material, where a country undertakes not to transmit the war material received from Switzerland without its prior agreement. This is a common practice among war material exporting countries to maintain some control over sensitive products.
According to the ‘Sonntagszeitung’, voices are being raised in Germany – whose Chancellor Olaf Scholz is accused of being too timorous in his support for Ukraine – to criticize Switzerland, which is jointly responsible for the fact that Germany cannot not deliver the aging German-made Marder infantry fighting vehicles requested by Ukraine. These tanks would be equipped with ammunition from Switzerland, according to the newspaper.
With regard to the fact, mentioned by the ‘SonntagsZeitung’, that Swiss ammunition for armored weapons, coming for example from the United Kingdom, nevertheless arrives in Ukraine, the Ministry of Economy specifies that a distinction must be made between the export of finished war material to States and the subcontracting of spare parts and modules to private companies. In the latter case, a declaration of non-re-export is not necessary.
According to the German newspaper ‘Welt am Sonntag’, Chancellor Scholz should announce in the coming days his decision regarding the sale by the German arms group Rheinmetall of around a hundred of these vehicles.
The German federal government declined to comment on this information.
The Swiss Ministry of Economy clarified that the case of the United Kingdom and the elements delivered by Switzerland for the NLAW (“Next Generation Light Anti-Tank Weapon”) anti-tank weapons which were supplied en masse to the Ukrainian army is distinct.
The decision to export these anti-tank weapons and the Swiss modules that compose them rests exclusively with the British authorities, the ministry said.
3:16 p.m .: Number of refugees nears 5.2 million mark
Just over 23,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled their country over the past 24 hours, which has been stormed by Russian troops for two months to the day and is approaching 5.2 million, according to partially updated figures from the High Commission for UN for Refugees published on Sunday. According to the UNHCR, 5,186,744 Ukrainians have left their country since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 23,058 more than the figure published on Saturday.
“Today we are thinking of everyone celebrating Orthodox Easter. For people in Ukraine and those forced to flee the country, it will be another day of fear, anguish, loss and separation from loved ones, as the war continues unabated. May strength and courage be with them,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi tweeted on Sunday.
Since the beginning of April, just over 1,151,000 Ukrainians have fled, much less than the 3.4 million who chose to leave in March alone.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), also attached to the UN, indicated that more than 218,000 non-Ukrainians, mainly students and migrant workers, had also left Ukraine for neighboring countries, which means that more than 5.25 million people in total have fled the country since the beginning of the war.
Women and children represent 90% of these refugees, men aged 18 to 60, likely to be mobilized, not having the right to leave.
Almost two-thirds of Ukrainian children have had to flee their homes, including those still in the country.
More than 7.7 million people have left their homes but are still in Ukraine, according to IOM.
Prior to the Russian invasion, Ukraine had a population of 37 million people in areas under its government’s control. This figure excludes Crimea (south), annexed in 2014 by Russia, and the eastern regions controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
2:03 p.m .: The OSCE “worried” about the detention of several of its members
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Sunday it was “extremely worried” after the arrest in Ukraine, in the pro-Russian separatist territories, of some of the members of its mission. Shortly after the Russian invasion on February 24, the OSCE evacuated several hundred observers from dozens of countries who had been monitoring the ceasefire since 2014.
1:22 p.m .: Switzerland blocks delivery to Ukraine of ammunition sold to Germany
The Swiss government is blocking a double shipment of ammunition manufactured in Switzerland but which Germany wants to send to Ukraine to help the country defend itself against the Russian invasion, the Sunday newspaper ‘Sonntagszeitung’ reported on Sunday. The Federal Department (Ministry) of the Economy (Seco) invokes, according to this weekly, the neutrality of the Swiss Confederation and the strict rules it applies on the re-export of military equipment to conflict zones to justify its decision.
12:48 p.m .: The pope renews his call for an Easter truce
On the occasion of Orthodox Easter, celebrated this Sunday, Pope Francis once again called for a truce in the fighting in Ukraine and an end to attacks against “exhausted populations”. “Today marks the two months since the start of this war”, February 24, he recalled after the Sunday prayer in front of thousands of faithful gathered in Saint Peter’s Square, some of whom waving the Ukrainian flag.
12:24 p.m .: UN calls for “immediate” truce in Mariupol to evacuate civilians
The UN called on Sunday for an “immediate” truce in Mariupol, to allow the evacuation of some 100,000 civilians still stuck in this Ukrainian port almost entirely controlled by the Russian army.
“There needs to be a pause in the fighting right now to save lives. The longer we wait, the more lives will be at risk. They must be allowed to evacuate now, today. Tomorrow will be too late,” said the coordinator of UN in Ukraine Amin Awad in a statement.
11 a.m.: “It will take 50 years to clear everything”
Decades will undoubtedly be necessary to neutralize the thousands of still active explosive devices that have been dumped on nearly half of the territory of Ukraine, warn specialists two months after the start of the Russian invasion.
“It will take 50 years to demine everything,” said Perrine Benoist, director of armed violence reduction for the NGO Handicap International, recalling that “we are still demining in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, 50 to 60 years later. “.
09:00: “The Russian army meets strong resistance in the Donbass”, according to London
The Russian army is facing strong resistance from Ukrainian troops in the Donbass, according to the United Kingdom. The British Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence update on Sunday morning that Ukrainian troops had repelled several attacks. Ukrainian forces reportedly inflicted “considerable damage” on the Russian army. No other details were given. Ukraine itself reports having repelled twelve Russian attacks in the Donbass in 24 hours and having destroyed, among other things, four tanks and five artillery systems.
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